5 Problematic HIT Projects Costing The Government Billions

Cost overruns and missed deadlines for several federal agency health technology projects are costing the government "billions of dollars," according to a Government Accountability Office report focusing on the inefficiency of agency IT initiatives published Thursday.

The report, which refers to the projects as "challenges" or "failures," also reveals that a public website developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to track technology spending--the IT Dashboard--is plagued with inaccurate cost and schedule information.

"Information technology should enable government to better serve the American people," the report's authors wrote. "However, according to OMB, despite spending more than $600 billion on IT over the past decade, the federal government has achieved little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT. Too often, federal IT projects run over budget, behind schedule or fail to deliver promised functionality. In combating this problem, proper oversight is critical."...